Yama Rising

Chapter 756: Searching for a Divine Artifact (1)

There had to be a reason behind Dong Zhuo's decision to make his Shu Han Imperial Palace the site of the final battle.

By Qin Ye's guess, the Chalice of Preiddeu Annwn was right here, but it had to be in some type of profound state, thereby preventing Dong Zhuo from leaving it.

However, if it really were here, then why hadn't he used it?

"Can you search his soul?" Qin Ye raised an eyebrow as he proposed, "But don't kill him; I'm planning to give him a new home. I'm sure the Black Yaksha would love this new neighbor, and we should also let him have some fun on the path of the hungry ghost."

Zhao Yun offered no objections, and he made a grabbing motion to summon the soul sphere once again. Yin energy then began to surface on his palm before converging in wisps and tendrils toward the center of the soul sphere.

Upon careful inspection, Qin Ye discovered that this soul sphere was different from the ones he had seen in the past. It was still made from cloth strips, but at its center was a bottomless black hole that was filled with inky-black nothingness.

It was clear that this soul sphere contained a serious ghost rather than trash like Arthis.

The Yin energy slowly entered the black hole, but several seconds later, Zhao Yun made a faint sound of surprise, and he appeared to be quite taken aback.

"What is it?" Qin Ye asked in an excited manner, "Could it be that the ghost inside has evolved? Who is it? Are they online?"

Zhao Yun: "..."

I have no idea what you're talking about, but it sounds really interesting...

After a brief pause, Zhao Yun replied in a grim voice, "His soul has been protected, so I can only come into contact with it on a surface level, but I can't see the things that he wants to hide."

"What does that mean?"

"It means that he's come into contact with a divine artifact, and during the first contact, the divine artifact had no owner, so it's now acting to protect him," Zhao Yun explained as he appraised the soul sphere with an intense gaze. "However, King Yanluo's Seal is incomplete, so there's no way that it would be able to protect him. On top of that, King Yanluo's Seal is Cathay's divine artifact, so even if it were complete and whole, there's no way it would acknowledge Dong Zhuo as its owner given that Hell still exists. Hence, it must be..."

"The Chalice of Preiddeu Annwn!" Qin Ye declared as a serious look appeared on his face. "As expected, it really is here. However, we're back to the same question: why didn't Dong Zhuo use it? That's a complete creation-grade divine artifact! Brother Zhao, can you release your senses to see if there are any other potential hiding spots in this city?"

Zhao Yun set the soul sphere down, and fierce winds were suddenly swept up around him and Qin Ye, only to immediately subside. Zhao Yun closed his eyes, and only after a full 10 minutes had passed did he reopen them before nodding as he said, "Please come with me, My Lord."

Qin Ye immediately nodded and followed along. As a creation-grade divine artifact, the value of the Chalice of Preiddeu Annwn was immeasurable; just a single drop of blood of a divinity could earn him the help of the Plumed Serpent God! As such, the Chalice of Preiddeu Annwn was essentially a bridge between this continent and the Alkebulan Underworlds.

Even a complete political novice like him was aware of what this entailed.

It would be the catalyst to set the next great war of the netherworld into motion!

There was no way that the four pillars could remain uninvolved. Even if they didn't directly participate in the war, they had to oversee the situation in order to earn greater benefits.

Qin Ye trailed along behind Zhao Yun, and they arrived back at Dong Zhuo's palace. After passing through several corridors, Zhao Yun suddenly drew to a halt. "This is where I captured Dong Zhuo."

The corridor was very long, and it was lined with Han Dynasty Changxin Palace Lanterns [These lanterns were one of the earliest forms of lightning instruments in Chinese history, and they're crafted in the design of a beautiful woman holding a lantern. Search up "Changxin Palace Lantern" in Google if you would like to see what the lanterns looked like.] constructed from brass.

The lanterns were crafted in the form of noble ladies seated on the ground with their legs tucked under them while holding square palace lanterns in their hands. Inside each lantern was a burning netherflame, and behind the lanterns were two long, white walls. Qin Ye didn't know what this place was like in the mortal realm, but currently, it was filled with all types of calligraphy and artwork. Under the illumination of the netherflames, the free-flowing calligraphy characters and the vivid artwork seemed to be ready to spring to life at any moment, giving this corridor a particularly eerie and forbidding appearance.

It made one feel as if as soon as they turned around, they would discover the lantern-carrying women in the corridor staring directly at them.

At the end of the corridor was a door.

The door was tightly shut with talismans adhered all over its surface, and there was wind blowing from somewhere, creating a sound much like the gentle crashing of waves.

Zhao Yun tore off one of the talismans before bursting into amused laughter upon a brief examination. "This is the Aura Concealment Art, the most basic of Yin energy concealing arts. The Westriver Province is the origin place of Taoism, so talisman paper is quite abundantly available here."

Qin Ye took the talisman from Zhao Yun and flipped it over a few times as he mused with furrowed brows, "Why have so many Aura Concealment Talismans been plastered onto this door? What exactly was Dong Zhuo trying to hide?"

Zhao Yun snapped his fingers, and all of the talismans were incinerated into ashes at once. He gently pushed the door open to reveal a vast expanse of inky darkness.

He led the way into the darkness, and a faint smile appeared on Qin Ye's face upon seeing this. In contrast with trash like Su Daji and Qin Hui, Zhao Yun displayed his loyalty through his actions rather than constantly proclaiming his loyalty through words.

Qin Ye was willing to bet that if the Hell were to be destroyed one day, Brother Zhao, Uncle Yu, and Uncle Yang would definitely be the ones to remain by his side till the very end. As for Su Daji and Qin Hui, they would've most likely already defected and begun licking the boots of the opposing leader.

As he walked along, Zhao Yun said, "As soon as Dong Zhuo entered Hell, he was immediately sent to the six paths of reincarnation. As a result, he didn't get a chance to come into contact with the more advanced arts of Hell, so he only knows crude arts like this. He has no clue about other Yin energy concealment arts such as the Divine Aura Art, the Turtle Age Art, or the Dragon Slumber Art, so he was naturally under the false impression that he would be able to trap even the purest of Yin energy in this fashion. What a fool! Accumulation of sufficient quantity can indeed lead to a fundamental change, but he would have to at least increase the number of talismans on this door by a thousandfold..."

All of a sudden, he drew to an abrupt halt and mused to himself, "How strange..."

He flicked a speck of netherfire through the air, and the room was instantly brightly illuminated.

The room was very bare without any ornaments or even any gauze veils. However, at the very center of the room sat a golden object.

This was a slightly bent cylindrical object that was around a meter tall. There were all types of designs carved onto the surface of the object, designs so chaotic that they couldn't even be referred to as patterns. The object was very antiquated in appearance, and even though Qin Ye didn't know what it was, he could sense a cold and ancient aura emanating from it.

Most importantly, there was a bird standing atop the pillar, one that was forged entirely from gold.

The bird resembled a parrot with its wings spread open, seemingly about to take flight, and it had been crafted extremely intricately. There was a raised crown on its head, and it had many tail feathers, all of which had been carved in great detail. Qin Ye raised an eyebrow upon seeing this. "This is something from the Three Star Mound!"

Before Zhao Yun had a chance to reply, he continued, "During my time in the mortal realm, the place I spent the most time in was the Westriver Province. The Three Star Mound ranks among the top 10 greatest archeological discoveries of Cathay, and it's estimated to have been created around 5,000 years ago. It's also one of the pieces of evidence supporting Cathay's claim of having a 5,000-year history. I was adopted by a librarian couple, and during my time with them, I read extensively about the Three Star Mound... Ahem, sorry for going off on a tangent there."

He made a few laps around the pillar, and the more he looked at it, the more confused his expression became. After inspecting the pillar for a full minute, his brows furrowed tightly as he said, "There was an exceptionally renowned bronze artifact that was unearthed from the Three Star Mound known as the Divine Bronze Tree. It's proclaimed to be a unique artifact, and it's comprised of three levels. On its branches stand nine divine birds, and there should also be a Coiling Bronze Dragon artifact that was unearthed. However, that artifact was supposedly damaged before its excavation..."

He gently stroked the golden bird with an awestruck expression as he mused, "According to speculation from experts, there should also be a divine bird that resided at the very top of the tree; could this be it?"

Right as he stroked his hand across the golden bird, the entire ground abruptly opened up, and both he and Zhao Yun fell into the pit below!

Before they had a chance to react, they had already landed on another surface.

This was an underground cave with a dirt path that was completely unrefined. The path was around five meters wide, and the walls were lined with netherfire torches. As soon as they landed, Zhao Yun immediately grabbed onto Qin Ye before positioning himself in front of Qin Ye as he inspected their surroundings with a wary expression. Before Qin Ye had a chance to speak, he said in a grim voice, "The Yin energy here is extremely dense. No... This is the aura of a death god... I've never sensed such an intense death god aura before..."

All of a sudden, his brows furrowed slightly as he mused, "Wait a minute... This aura... It's so strange..."

"What's going on, Brother Zhao?" Qin Ye asked in a perplexed manner.

Zhao Yun remained silent and pondered the situation for close to 20 seconds before replying, "It's a deceased death god, but he's somehow still alive. How do I put this? Our existence is split up into a soul and a spiritual body, much like a soul and a physical body. The soul of this death god is still alive, but their spiritual body has already been destroyed. However, they seem to be undergoing a process of resurrection, and on top of that, they don't seem to completely be a death god, do you understand what I mean?"

Qin Ye nodded in a hesitant manner. It was clear that the situation here was unfathomable even to Zhao Yun.

"However, I'm certain that the Chalice of Preiddeu Annwn is here." Zhao Yun narrowed his eyes as he forged ahead. "Such an intense deathly aura tells me that this death god had also transcended beyond the level of Yama-Kings, but rest assured, in their current state, there's no way they'll be a match for me."

Qin Ye followed along.

The path was very long and uneven, and there were abandoned shovels and hoes strewn all over the place. It was clear that Dong Zhuo had ordered people to dig up this underground path, but it seemed to have been abandoned long ago. It was clear that the terrifying aura here had made the ones digging the path too scared to continue.

After walking for a full hour, a large space emerged up ahead, and a giant cave appeared before Qin Ye and Zhao Yun's eyes.

Inside the cave laid an enormous creature!

It was a snake, one that was pure white and almost transparent.

In its coiled form, the snake stood around five to six meters tall, and its body was close to a meter in thickness. By Qin Ye's estimate, once fully outstretched, the snake would exceed 30 meters in length. From his perspective, he could clearly see the snake's body, but not its head. They immediately made their way toward the massive creature, and as they drew closer, they discovered that this was a snake slough, one that was over 30 meters in length!

Orderly black rhomboid patterns could be seen on the surface of the snake slough's back, with each rhomboid section spanning a length of roughly a meter. Qin Ye didn't know how long it had been since this snake slough had been cast off, but it was still giving off considerably intense Yin energy. As they made their way to the front of the snake slough, they discovered that the upper body of this snake was humanoid!

This was the slough of a man-snake hybrid creature!

"Incredible..." Qin Ye gently stroked the snake slough as he asked, "Brother Zhao, have you seen this type of living being in the Underworld before?"

"I haven't..." Zhao Yun was also completely awestruck. "However, I'm sure you've noticed that none of the Yin beasts in the Underworld possess humanoid forms. Even if they possessed humanoid traits, it would only be a single body part at most, such as their hands, feet, or face. In contrast, this creature here has a complete human upper body and brain; it can no longer be classified as a Yin beast. Also..."

He withdrew his hand as he continued with a serious expression, "The Emissaries of Hell possess true bodies, otherwise known as their Hell's Emissary state. A Hell's Emissary state is completely different from a humanoid form, but it possesses humanoid traits."

He turned to Qin Ye as he continued, "This is a trait unique to Emissaries of Hell, and I'm sure the second King Yanluo would've told you about this in the past."

Qin Ye nodded in response. That was indeed the case.

He still recalled that the second King Yanluo had told him that this trait was only present among Emissaries of Hell. In contrast, foreign Underworld Emissaries possessed true bodies of all shapes and forms. At the time, he had even recounted to Qin Ye a funny story about the time he had seen a foreign Underworld Emissary whose true body was a coffin with eight arms sprouting out of its sides.

"Hence..." Zhao Yun took a deep breath before concluding, "This is not a Yin spirit of Hell."

Qin Ye offered no response to this. Instead, he appraised the snake slough through narrowed eyes for a moment before musing, "It can't be said that it's not a Yin spirit of Hell; it's just not fully a Yin spirit of Hell. Look here..."